Introducing: Gautam Desiraju
Gautam Desiraju has been in the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India since 2009 and since 2023 has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor in UPES, Dehradun. Prior to this, he was in the University of Hyderabad for 30 years. He has played a major role in the development and growth of the subject of crystal engineering. He is one of the most highly cited Indian scientists with roughly 500 papers, more than 75,000 citations, and an H-index well over 105.
Outside the strictly scientific domain, Prof. Desiraju’s books Bharat: India 2.0 and Delimitation and States Reorganization are concerned with the constitutional history of India and its re-imagination as Bharat, a civilizational state rather than a nation-state as has been understood till now. Two forthcoming books in 2025 are India’s Supply Chains in a World at War and Fixing Science in India: A Socio-Economic Prescription.
As a chemist, Prof. Desiraju is noted for gaining acceptance for the theme of weak hydrogen bonding among chemists and crystallographers. His books on crystal engineering (Elsevier, 1989; World Scientific, 2011) and the weak hydrogen bond in structural chemistry and biology (OUP, 1999) are particularly well known.
He has won international awards such as the Alexander von Humboldt Forschungspreis, the TWAS award in Chemistry, and the ISA medal for Science of the University of Bologna. He has guided the Ph.D work of around 35 students and mentored around 70 post-doctoral associates. He is a member of the editorial advisory boards of Chemical Communications and the Journal of the American Chemical Society. He is a former President of the International Union of Crystallography. He is a recipient of an honorary doctorate degree of the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina, Rayalaseema University, Kurnool and Gulbarga University, Kalaburagi. He was awarded the Acharya P. C. Ray Medal (2015) of the University of Calcutta for innovation in science and technology.
Tell us about your early years – which city you were born in, where you were brought up and your academic and other interests during your early years.
I was born in Madras in 1952 and lived there till 1961. From then till 1972 I lived in Bombay (now Mumbai) where I went to school (Cathedral) and college (Xavier’s). My father was a transferable government servant and I had an upbringing where traditional values were emphasized at home without veering into orthodoxy, while modernistic thinking was allowed to permeate freely from the outside world. Bombay was, in the end, the gateway of India with its door to the East and its face to the West. I got the best of both worlds in this remarkable city.
What academic qualifications do you you hold, and from which universities? What were the years in which you secured them?
BSc, 1972 (Bombay University), PhD, 1976 (University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign) in chemistry.
What attracted you to your academic interests?
I really don’t know. I am a bit of an iconoclast and dislike hierarchy. I would not have made the grade in an administrative or corporate position. I like being my own boss and I set higher standards for myself than I do for others.
What have been your most fulfilling experiences in your journey as a scientist based in India?
Inadequate funding has constrained Indian research. But a scientist must still progress with meaningful research and outcomes! I evolved the concept of ‘idea-based’ research in chemistry and developed the subject of crystal engineering (where we make crystals in our labs the objects of our study) instead of following the conventional system-based research, which is resource heavy. My ‘idea-based’ approach to research created a world class research group which delivered outcomes in spite of limited funding. The approach and its outcomes also became an inspiration for individual members and set a precedent for them to follow. I consider this to be my most fulfilling achievement.
Besides being a scientist and academic, what other interests do you have? Please tell us more about those and how they may have shaped you as a person.
I trained in Carnatic music as a vocalist till the late 1980s when I gave it up because of my research activity in my university. I got into a sort of second career ten years ago, writing about our constitution, politics, geostrategy, and I have four or five books that have attracted moderate attention: Bharat: India 2.0; Delimitation and States Reorganisation; India’s Supply Chains in a World at War; Fixing Science in India: A Socio-Economic Prescription.
What in your view are the biggest challenges faced by India’s scientist community?
Their biggest challenge is themselves. They are timid, fearful and weak. They can also be obsequious towards whites and repressive towards each other. Till they understand who they are and what they are supposed to do in a newly awakening India, they will not be effective at the international level.
Their challenges give them the opportunity to achieve in spite of adversity. If they take on those challenges and still achieve, they can look back on those achievements with a sense of much satisfaction. Some seize this opportunity, some don’t.
The present government aspires to make India a developed country (Viksit Bharat) by 2047. What role do you see science and research playing in achieving this ambition?
This is a time of disruptive change. Science and research will play a very big role in our progress as a nation. But we need to continuously invest in the right research and apply its outcomes to enable sustained economic growth and establishment of a stable and educated society.
I have stated before that we need much more funding than we have now. For long years, low research budgets have forced us down the path of incrementalism, which cannot work for a large, low per capita income country nurturing global aspirations.
There also needs to be a much stronger interface between research and industry. This will be a win-win for both, and the country as a whole. It will lead to greater ongoing investment in scientific research, with clear and timely outcomes; research will be more focused and researchers more engaged.
Do you see the National Education Policy 2020 as an effective enabler for making India a developed country?
I will quote Sun Tzu: Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.
In terms of detailed vision, NEP 2020 is outstanding. Real benefit for India lies, however, in its timely and effective implementation within cost. Time will answer how much NEP 2020 enables India’s development.
What do you see as India’s biggest strengths and its challenges in research, academia and beyond, in achieving this aspiration by 2047?
We might have brilliant minds but we don’t have enough in terms of research funding – we need 5 times more money than we get today.
In research, academia and beyond, nothing speaks like merit and innovation combined with ethics. Reservation at higher levels does not guarantee excellent returns on investment. It needs to go.
Funding in research drives a lot – not just quantity and quality of innovation and outcomes, but also morale of the researchers. Steady infusion of funding will also motivate researchers to work hard and to collaborate better.
What do you believe governments, the scientist community and, indeed, Indians are doing and/or should do to address the challenges in India’s journey towards Viksit Bharat?
Indians across levels and in all positions need to work harder and support each other at work. At individual and institutional levels our outcomes need to be timely. The world will not wait for India to catch up. It’s more important to be somewhat correct at the right time instead of being totally correct at the wrong time.
